Plane Crash near Nancy: Two Soldiers Killed

The crash of a passenger plane killed two people near Nancy on Friday night. The victims are soldiers from Ochey airbase 133 (Meurthe-et-Moselle).

Friday 11th May, 2018 around 8pm, an accident of a single-engine civil aircraft has crashed in Laneuvelotte (Meurthe-et-Moselle), in the suburbs of Nancy .

After touching the ground, the aircraft caught fire and the two individuals (the pilot and his passenger) died “presumably as a result of this fire,” according to François Pérain, public prosecutor of the Republic of Nancy .

An investigation was opened for “manslaughter” . It is entrusted with co-referral to the SRTA (air transport research section based in Roissy specializing in aviation) and the Nancy research brigade.

Two soldiers from Nancy-Ochey air base

According to the prosecution, the first investigations revealed the identities of the two victims. Thanks in particular to the presence of two vehicles in front of the hangar of Nancy Essey aerodrome from where the plane took off,

They are Thomas C, a fighter pilot at BA 133 Nancy-Ochey , and Paul G., also a soldier in the same base.

Expertise to “compare the dentition will identify that of the two dead who actually held the place of pilot”, according to Mr. Pérain.

A piece of wing comes off in full flight

A piece of a wing “would have detached and would have had the effect of unbalancing the plane whose pilot would have lost control”, according to the public prosecutor. According to him, these are testimonies that allow to advance this first hypothesis.

Thanks to the use of a drone, the missing piece of the wing could be found at the place designated by a witness, “thus confirming the accidental thesis”, still according to the floor.

Judicial information should be available soon. The prosecutor will ask the investigating judge who will be appointed “to order an expertise that will be in the long term”.